Reviews & Ratings for
The Irishman More at IMDbPro »

9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
a lost Australian epic, 22 February 2004

Author: ptb-8 from Australia

What a gorgeous EPIC film! This is one of the Australian Film Industry's most beautifully made really BIG films of the 70s...and also one of its almost completely forgotten. Made at a time when there were many period piece films THE IRISHMAN is actually the very best of them. Somewhere between Picnic At hanging Rock and Gallipoli Australia musty have produced 20 horsey movies set in the country. Sadly, in its day, it was just another film, but seen apart from the mob, this one is the most perfectly photographed, heartfelt, optimistic and realistic family features made in this country. Unrelentingly exquisite to watch, with engaging and genuine characters and a sensational cast, THE IRISHMAN is the one Australian film from the late 70s that deserves a major re discovery. A widescreen DVD of this film will be late entry masterpiece into everyone's collection. Apparently the archive in Australia is about to produce a new 35mm print and I can only say it will be one of their most satisfying parts of the collection possible. It may not be available internationally for a while, but collectors from the US and UK and European countries should track this down and buy a copy. One day.

Seriously challenging film for good and bad reasons, 4 September 2010

Author: Scotness from Australia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I found The Irishman to be a very curious and very challenging film in a lot of ways. It is not a "big picture" type of film - despite being called an historical epic it doesn't capture broad sweeps of history and themes; but it focuses on family relationships, in particular father/son, in an historical setting. This makes it a unique and interesting film. It is at times astoundingly serious and moving, but for most of the time it is hampered by a maudlin, even soap opera like, feel and pacing, which is made all the more worse by an extremely over sentimental score.

The acting is of varying standard - I didn't find Simon Burke very solid, although Robyn Nevin was suitably stoic and painted a great picture of a frontier wife. Michael Craig was gruff but not as authoritative as I would have expected, given his character's work.

The production design was fantastic and the natural light photography was stunning, and on a par with Barry Lyndon. The use of electric lights in the final rainforest scenes stood out like a sore thumb and almost made those scenes look like they were shot in a studio by comparison.

I'm not surprised this film wasn't a hit, but that is not to say it is with out merit. It made me think of the family tensions, relations and role modelling in that era - which is a good thing to do. It's definitely worth a look because when it does hit it hits well - but there's a lot of tedium and mis-pacing in between.

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